Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head

[RSDonovan]

Good morning

according to the Trainline app I can buy a ticket Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Esplanade but not to Ryde Pier Head even though the Esplanade route involves a change at Pier Head! Any ideas why?

 

[akm]

Perhaps because since Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head doesn't actually involve any rail travel, it would be a bit odd for there to be a train ticket for it??

 

[swt_passenger]

Good morning

according to the Trainline app I can buy a ticket Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Esplanade but not to Ryde Pier Head even though the Esplanade route involves a change at Pier Head! Any ideas why?

That would be a ferry only journey, and I believe there’s an agreement that the railway will only sell fares that include a rail segment. I don’t think the rail ticketing system will sell Lymington Pier to Yarmouth either.

 

[RSDonovan]

That would be a ferry only journey, and I believe there’s an agreement that the railway will only sell fares that include a rail segment. I don’t think the rail ticketing system will sell Lymington Pier to Yarmouth either.

But there isn’t a station at Yarmouth any more!

That would be a ferry only journey, and I believe there’s an agreement that the railway will only sell fares that include a rail segment. I don’t think the rail ticketing system will sell Lymington Pier to Yarmouth either.

Perhaps because since Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head doesn't actually involve any rail travel, it would be a bit odd for there to be a train ticket for it??

Yes, that makes sense!

 

[swt_passenger]

But there isn’t a station at Yarmouth any more!

Yes, that’s right, but the same rule of selling applies, you can buy a ticket to Yarmouth IOW from other stations that do include a rail leg, such as Lymington Town. The rail leg doesn’t have to be on the island, Portsmouth and Southsea to Ryde Pier Head should be available.

 

[mangyiscute]

I went onto the wightlink website to see if their standard crossing fare costs more than a ticket from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Esplanade (in some cases, yes it does) and I noticed that theyre introducing ticket barriers which are capable of scanning rail e tickets, but not traditional magnetic strip tickets (https://www.wightlink.co.uk/plan-your-journey/routes/portsmouth-ryde-route). Im not sure if we've seen these before but perhaps this is a sign of the future - besides from London and Merseyside, theres no need for physical tickets and fewer people are using them.

 

[Gloster]

That would be a ferry only journey, and I believe there’s an agreement that the railway will only sell fares that include a rail segment. I don’t think the rail ticketing system will sell Lymington Pier to Yarmouth either.

I believe that this is the correct explanation.

The gates will be at both terminals and will apparently be before the lounge (drafty waiting room at Ryde). Tickets with magnetic strips will have to be dealt with manually, as will parents with children.

 

[Haywain]

Tickets with magnetic strips will have to be dealt with manually,

I'm amused by the wording on their website:

If you’re travelling using a rail ticket with a magnetic strip, these will need to be scanned manually by our port staff, as will adults travelling with children.

"Scanned"? They mean read, don't they!

 

[redreni]

I went onto the wightlink website to see if their standard crossing fare costs more than a ticket from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Esplanade (in some cases, yes it does) and I noticed that theyre introducing ticket barriers which are capable of scanning rail e tickets, but not traditional magnetic strip tickets (https://www.wightlink.co.uk/plan-your-journey/routes/portsmouth-ryde-route). Im not sure if we've seen these before but perhaps this is a sign of the future - besides from London and Merseyside, theres no need for physical tickets and fewer people are using them.

I'm sure we'll get there.

Last time I went to the IoW my ticket included a cross-London transfer, meaning there was a need for a physical ticket. And there still would be if I booked the same ticket again today. There is still no date for a solution to TfL's cross-London e-ticket shortcoming, as far as I know.

 

[MrJeeves]

For what it's worth, if people plan to use the hovercraft and have a Railcard, it is cheaper to buy a ticket from Fratton to Ryde Hoverport with that Railcard than it is to buy a hovercraft ticket on its own.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I went onto the wightlink website to see if their standard crossing fare costs more than a ticket from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Esplanade (in some cases, yes it does) and I noticed that theyre introducing ticket barriers which are capable of scanning rail e tickets, but not traditional magnetic strip tickets (https://www.wightlink.co.uk/plan-your-journey/routes/portsmouth-ryde-route). Im not sure if we've seen these before but perhaps this is a sign of the future - besides from London and Merseyside, theres no need for physical tickets and fewer people are using them.

TfW have VIX gates that don't accept CCST

 

[Meole]

Ryde Pier Head station says buy ticket on the train, on recent journeys never see the conductor.

 

[Willie Bee]

For what it's worth, if people plan to use the hovercraft and have a Railcard, it is cheaper to buy a ticket from Fratton to Ryde Hoverport with that Railcard than it is to buy a hovercraft ticket on its own.

Good spot .. I've just looked this up on the RailUK site and fares are ... Hovercraft (day return) £31.50 and from Fratton £22/£23 return

 

[Gloster]

There is no rail ticket office or machine capable of delivering pre-ordered rail tickets at Pier Head. I think that the machine that sells local tickets has also gone, although I am not certain as I am usually ‘dashing’ from train to cat or vice-versa and have other concerns.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There is no rail ticket office or machine capable of delivering pre-ordered rail tickets at Pier Head. I think that the machine that sells local tickets has also gone, although I am not certain as I am usually ‘dashing’ from train to cat or vice-versa and have other concerns.

There is definitely no TVM of any kind (bar Wightlink selling ferry tickets) at Ryde Pier Head. It's a strange omission.

 

[trainophile]

We bought on the train from the guard on Thursday this week. Boarded at Esplanade (snap decision, only had a minute to get to the platform, ticket office staff told us to buy on board), going to Shanklin so obviously didn't involve the Pier connection. But there are guards, and they do sell tickets on the train. 'Bog roll' tickets but quite common these days.

p.s. While on this topic, it's poor that there are no public toilets serving both the rail connection and the bus station at Esplanade currently. The beachside ones are all boarded over/demolished, looks like some big rebuild project going on, and the two toilet doors in the station building have "Toilets not in use" signs stuck on them. One hopes this is temporary, but if you arrive or depart when the pubs over the road aren't open you're a bit stuck if you're getting off a train and onto a bus.

 

[Gloster]

We bought on the train from the guard on Thursday this week. Boarded at Esplanade (snap decision, only had a minute to get to the platform, ticket office staff told us to buy on board), going to Shanklin so obviously didn't involve the Pier connection. But there are guards, and they do sell tickets on the train. 'Bog roll' tickets but quite common these days.

p.s. While on this topic, it's poor that there are no public toilets serving both the rail connection and the bus station at Esplanade currently. The beachside ones are all boarded over/demolished, looks like some big rebuild project going on, and the two toilet doors in the station building have "Toilets not in use" signs stuck on them. One hopes this is temporary, but if you arrive or depart when the pubs over the road aren't open you're a bit stuck if you're getting off a train and onto a bus.

Work has been going on for about eighteen months and wasn’t finished last week, although it was only programmed to last about four months. Still, this is an Isle of Wight transport project, so what can one expect.

The problem with the toilets is that Ryde Town Council has agreed to take on responsibility for the new ones, but hasn’t sorted out the contract with South Western Railway. However, the temporary toilets provided by the Isle of Wight Council have been removed.

 

[hermit]

There is definitely no TVM of any kind (bar Wightlink selling ferry tickets) at Ryde Pier Head. It's a strange omission.

It wouldn’t be very helpful to have a TVM at Pierhead since there would not in practice be time to pick up tickets, even TOD, in the short period when, as Gloster says, we are dashing between train and ferry. The only likely outcome would be more passengers missing the connection.